1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and to a circuit arrangement for accepting and forwarding message cells transmitted according to an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) by an ATM switching equipment which comprises a multi-stage reversing switching matrix network, whereby each of the message cells within the ATM switching equipment is preceded by a routing information block having a plurality of routing information corresponding in number to the plurality of switching matrix stages to be traversed and the routing information just evaluated for the forwarding of a message cell through one of the switching matrix stages is subsequently displaced to the end of the respective routing information block.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A method and a circuit arrangement of the type generally set forth above are known in the art for general ATM switching equipment, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,945, fully incorporated herein by this reference. Given the application of this known method in an ATM switching equipment comprising a multi-stage reversing switching matrix network, it can occur that message cells are misrouted within the reversing switching matrix arrangement due to hardware errors or, respectively, bit falsifications and, instead of leaving the reversing switching matrix arrangement, are conducted back thereto. In such a case, there is the risk that the message cells will constantly remain (circulate) in a loop in the reversing switching matrix network.